RWBY: Dear Chairman
by CuChulainn X19
Summary: A post-war AU told through the correspondence of a former Atlesian special project director and the new chairman of the reconstituted Vale Council. Epilogue: The Director meets an old friend. Adapted from the Red vs Blue Season 6 voiceovers and the Season 10 finale.
1. Dear Chairman

Prologue.

Dear Chairman,

I write today in response to the Vale Council's request for more information about my program and the suspected incident at CCT Relay 17-B. I am sure that you have, by now, reviewed the information I have already forwarded from the Recovery agents we sent to the region. I am sure you have seen the empty buildings, the barricades constructed by the survivors, the cryptic warning left on the wall, the battles that apparently took place between soldiers—teammates—who had turned on one another.

And, of course… the ship.

While I cannot say for certain, I share your concern that we are witnessing an unfortunate post-project scenario here. It is certainly clear that this was not the result of a mere Grimm incursion, even one of overwhelming force. However, I take exception to your assertion that we were warned this was a possibility. I would like to remind the Councillors that anything is possible. Some things are probable. This is what it is. And my agency, as it always has, will continue to deal with what is… until it is no more.

— — —

1\. To the Director of Project Autumn from the Chairman of the Council of Vale.

Dear Director,

I want to thank you in advance for your open response to the Council's request for more information. We were disappointed that your recovery force reported a total loss at Relay 17-B. We had hoped there would be at least one soldier left who could shed some light on the situation. I know that your agency has enjoyed a high degree of freedom with very little scrutiny in the past few years. It is not our intention to disrupt such a progressive defense program, but instead to find a way we can work together in a manner that befits all our responsibilities. I am certain that you will agree, and I look forward to making this review process as painless as we possibly can.

— — —

2\. A Response from the Director of Project Autumn.

Dear Chairman,

While I am obligated to assist in your investigation, I ask that you not waste my time with irrelevant questions. I am certain that the Atlesian government will be happy to answer any pressing questions you have concerning routine troop reassignments, and as for Huntsmen and Huntresses—well, half the point is that they work on their own. My agency was consulted, I'm sure you know, on only the most critical affairs.

— — —

3.

Dear Director,

Due to your busy schedule, we have begun interviewing members of your staff. I'm certain you will let us know if this bothers you. Our debriefings keep coming back to a single subject at Relay 17-B. Can you explain to us what this "Mosaic" is, and what your plans are to deal with it?

— — —

4.

Dear Chairman,

Rest assured we have the situation under control. While the Mosaic is proving to be an elusive enemy, we have a decorated Huntress already closing in on it. I expect this will all be over soon, and I will be able to return to my research, I hope without further interruption.

— — —

5.

Dear Director,

We can all understand that a shift from autonomy to oversight can be a difficult adjustment for anyone, but especially for someone of your standing. In that spirit, we have attempted to accommodate your brief explanations to our serious inquiries. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to inform you that even our trust has limits.

— — —

6.

Dear Chairman,

The Mosaic is merely a being seeking to increase its power in these confusing days after the war. From my perspective, that seems to be a very common occurrence at the moment.

— — —

7.

Dear Director,

The Atlesian government has confirmed that your program—a direct descendant of the disastrous "P.E.N.N.Y." project—was granted the materials and authorization for a single enhanced or artificial operative. Yet, your own records clearly show multiple Huntsmen and Huntresses in the field with these enhancements during the same time frames. Surely this must be a logging error, and we anticipate a corrected document soon.

— — —

8.

Dear Chairman,

I think I can understand your concerns: it is easy to imagine that increased activity, for a project of this nature, would bring increased risk. However, our fail-safes are simple but foolproof. A dead or dying Huntress or Huntsman's Scroll automatically notifies our recovery team, who will be on the scene immediately to rescue or retrieve the fallen warrior, and to secure all of the government's property.

— — —

9.

Dear Director,

I feel you are avoiding the question. If this target was already in possession of an enhancement unit, how was he able to secure an additional unit from Miss Chloris? Would that not verify, as we indicated earlier, that your program now runs experiments with more than one artificial enhancement program? If so, where did these additional templates come from? And more importantly, how did your agency procure them?

— — —

10.

Dear Chairman,

The records you received are accurate. It is true that my project was granted the use of only one artificial sentience template, yet with special permission to conduct our experiments. That is all I was allowed to do and that is all I have done. Of course, I am sure that you will agree that the core mission of any scientific or defensive mission is to find creative solutions to unexpected problems.

— — —

11.

Dear Director,

Do your "creative solutions" include the circumvention of the safety protocols that every member of the military must follow? If they do not, then I fail to see how an enemy has managed to secure not one, but several of your experimental programs. The protocol is not a guideline, dear Director. It is doctrine, and no one is above its rule.

— — —

12.

Dear Chairman,

I, too, hold the protocol in high esteem. The doctrine kept us all safe during the Great War, not only our civilization but myself and the men and women with whom I personally fought that war. I hope I need not remind you, Chairman, of the role I played in that conflict and the dedication and sacrifices that were exacted from me. So if you are insinuating, sir, that my agency violated the protocol in any way, or that we were derelict in our duty, then I suggest you be direct, and tell me exactly how we did so.

— — —

13.

Dear Director,

Our laws are not designed to outline every possible infraction that may take place. However, the spirit of the law is clear: blatant disregard for the safety and well-being of our citizens, in any form, will always be a punishable offense, regardless of how well, or by whom, that offense has been justified.

— — —

14.

Dear Chairman,

It was my understanding that the letter of the law was never more valuable than in preventing so-called justice from being brought to bear against those who had upset the powerful, yet never committed a crime. If such a notion confuses you, I refer you to our records on Blake Belladonna and to the collected writings of Huntsman Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck. And while I share your concern about distortions in the opposite direction, allow me to correct you on one thing: I value all of our citizens' well-being, but I revere above all else our ability to continue as a species—our ability to survive. This is the guiding principle of every Huntsman and every Huntress. And no council, no bureaucrat, will ever convince me otherwise.

— — —

15.

Dear Director,

Please do not attempt to recast this investigation as some type of personal vendetta. Our questions, to this point, have been fairly straightforward. Your reactions have not. As such, we have dispatched officers of the VCPD to secure all your records and logs according to the authority vested in us as the Council of Vale. Now we shall see exactly what it is that you have to hide.

— — —

16.

Dear Chairman,

I imagine this investigation of our program is providing you with the kind of attention that politicians crave so much. How very predictable. What has surprised me most about mankind since the Great War is not our ability to unite in the face of a common enemy, but our willingness, whenever the chance arises, to so quickly turn our blades on each other once again.

— — —

17.

Dear Director,

It is clear now that your agency and its primary program, Project Autumn, have abused the trust and freedom that the Atlesian military and now the Council of Vale have provided you. Your abuse of the Prism AI will now become the subject of a criminal investigation. I'm sorry, Director, but you have seen the end of my patience.

— — —

18.

Dear Chairman,

And so the cowards rush to judge their own defenders. Have you forgotten, sir, that we were at war? A battle with the Darkness made flesh for the very survival of humanity? I feel I must remind you that it is an undeniable, and, may I say, a fundamental quality of man that, when faced with extinction, _every_ alternative is preferable.

— — —

19.

To the Director of Project Autumn:

I write to inform you that, by the authority of this Council, officers of the VCPD have been dispatched to place you under arrest, and we expect your full cooperation. Congratulations are in order, I suppose. When they write the new morality protocols for dealing with artificial beings, I am certain they will name entire sections of the doctrine after you. It seems that you will earn you place in history after all… dear Director.

— — —

Finale.

Dear Chairman,

I am disappointed by your decision to press charges, but I am not surprised. My only hope, if that is what it should be called, is that the courts will see the matters differently than you have. You see, I have spent my life in the service of humanity. I have faced countless battles, yet destiny never provided me with the opportunity to sacrifice myself for humanity, as it did for so many others during the Great War. One of the very earliest of those to sacrifice herself was a young woman who was very dear to me, and my mind has always plagued me with the question: if the choice had been placed in my hands, could I have saved her? The memory of her has haunted me for my entire life, more so in these last few years than I would ever have thought possible. But, given the events of these past few weeks, I feel confident that had I been given the chance, I would have made those sacrifices myself. Had I only the chance.

I know that you disagreed with my methods and that others will as well. This is beyond my control. However, I cannot imagine that any jury will be able to convict me, no matter how low their opinion of my actions might be.

You must understand one basic fact for all of this to make sense, my dear Chairman. The Polendina program, like Penny herself, was and always will be a separate question entirely. But these AI, the enhancement platforms used by our Project? Their kind all come from somewhere. They are all based on a person. Our Prism was no exception.

And while the law has many penalties for the atrocities we inflict upon others, there are no punishments for the terrors that we inflict on ourselves.

So you send your men. They won't find themselves a fight. I was never so strong, but now they'll only find an old man. An old man tired, but satisfied that he did his duty. An old man weary from a mind more filled with memory than it is with hope.

Sincerely yours,

The former Director of Project Autumn,

Jaune Arc.

* * *

Conversation adapted from the voiceover introductions and conclusion to Red vs Blue: Reconstruction. A full transcript of the dialogue, on which this was based, is available on the RvB Wiki. Red vs Blue and RWBY belong entirely to RoosterTeeth.


	2. Epilogue: Don't Say It

Epilogue.

"Beginning simulation."

The door hisses open behind him as he stares at the flickering screen. It's been so long now. Diagnostics, algorithms, probabilities, and more dance before his eyes. Everything so far had failed. If only—

"Hi, Jaune." Her voice is hesitant, laced with sadness.

"Hello, Ruby. Would you like to look over this file with me?"

"No." She pauses, pity and her own age-old grief welling inside her. "So, this is what you've become?"

Jaune can only lower his head. He knows he's hurt them, hurt them all so, so badly, Ren and Nora most of all, but—this is something he has to do. "I just need to see this. I think I have a way… a way to bring her back right this time."

Ruby crosses her arms, trying her best impression of the inspirational young woman she was back when they had first arrived at Beacon. "The authorities are hunting you now, Jaune. If I found you, they will, too."

She moves as if to reach out her hand, but something holds her back.

The authorities don't matter anymore. They haven't for a long time, not since one dark night long ago, not since a kiss and a needless, pointless sacrifice that so many people, himself most of all, should have seen coming, should have been able to _do something_ to alter. "I just need a bit more time."

That's a lie. He might have it, this time, but he might not. For all he knows he could work until the last light fades and the Grimm rips his desiccated body to pieces and never come an inch closer to saving her. But he has to keep trying.

An angry yell comes from Ruby's Scroll. "No! You've had your time. You have to answer to what you did. To the Meta, to Blake, to Ruby, to me, and to her! To Phoenix!"

It's a voice he knows well. "Hello, Crocus. You came all this way just to see me?"

"I'm here to remember what you've done," his own memories excoriate him. "Somebody has to!"

"Crocus…" Ruby warns him.

"Not all of us got off scot-free, Ruby." The charge is unfair, deeply so, and Ruby's face can't hide how deeply it stings her. So many lost so much, beginning long before the project, and Ruby has for her entire life suffered as much as any of them. Not that Crocus cares right now.

"He was brilliant!" the AI cries, in the static-washed tones of the ever-logical Boreas.

"And we trusted him!" Poor, poor Thistle. As innocent as Ruby, and every bit as kind.

"But he lied to us! He twisted—" screamed Umbros, ever the deceiver—

"And tortured us, and used us!" finished Vulcan, his characteristic rage multiplied to stand out from the anguish of his peers. But the memories weren't done yet.

"He manipulated us for his own purposes," ambitious Lunos condemned him, "and for what? For this? This… shadow?"

"He needs to pay," Crocus concluded.

Ruby placed a hand on his shoulder. On the monitor, an audio file came on. "I'm sorry!"

Soft lips touched his graying brow, and Ruby pulled away.

"Just a bit more time," Jaune pleaded, his eyes thick with tears.

Ruby gazed back at him a moment longer, sorrow and pity etched deeply into her kind, heroic features, and she nodded. "Come on, Crocus. We're leaving."

"I though we came all this way to kill him," the AI objected. So she had determined that. Not surprising, really, not after everything he'd done. To be left alone like this was… well, it was more than he deserved.

"Crocus," Ruby answered the fractured program, "remember what you learned in the database? You need to let go. Your past doesn't define how you are. It just gives you the starting point for who you're going to be."

Was that true? He supposed it was. Pyrrha had once tried to drill something very similar into him, back at Beacon. He may have faked his way in, he may have been useless as a fighter, but every hero started from nothing, and relied on their friends and their own dedication to become who they were meant to be.

Who they were meant to be. That was a joke. Had Pyrrha been meant to die that night? Had he been meant to—to waste away like this, dedicated irrevocably to the memory of _την πολλην αριστην Αχαιων_? Whatever his destiny had been, he had surely missed it by now. All that remained was to join her.

"Ruby?"

Crocea Mors was a distant memory, but the younger Huntress had begun carrying a hand cannon, in the mold of General Ironwood's, after she had been disarmed or caught in close quarters a few times too often. She still carried the weapon; he'd seen it beside Crescent Rose as she stood next to him.

"Yes, Jaune?"

"Would you be so kind as to leave me your pistol?"

Her gaze locks with his one last time, and the redhead silently slides the weapon from its holster and places it before him on the desk. This will be easier than trying to run himself through, anyway.

"Thank you, Ruby."

"Goodbye, Jaune."

He is alone now. "Run the simulation again, Penny," he orders.

"Beginning simulation," the partially-rebuilt AI replies.

He stares at the screen, vacantly and intently at the same time. Now he cares nothing for the notes in the margins, the algorithms and technical details. He seeks out every image of her, every video of her fighting or walking or smiling. He's almost done, now.

"Thank you, Penny. Now, please erase all of our files except this one."

"All our files? Does that include me, Director?"

"It has been an honor working with you, Penny. I am sorry." And he is, he truly is. He should have sent her with Ruby, should have given her a chance to continue on past this miserable end to a miserable man's existence. But now there's nothing left, and for that he is truly sorry.

"And you, as well, Director," the AI tells him, her voice sympathetic even to the man who is ordering her destruction. But he can't dwell there, and anyways, it won't be long for either of them.

"And, before you do, please shut down all the facility systems as well. Take everything offline." He's always been a coward. Better if he doesn't leave himself an exit.

"Director," Penny objects, apparently not comprehending, "this is a sealed facility. If I shut down all systems, life support would not—"

He cuts her off, but does not explain. "Thank you, Penny. Shut them all down. Lock me in."

"Alright." She sounds reluctant, but concedes, as she always has. "Was the project a success? Did you find what you were looking for?" Of course she would ask that. Ren knew, and Nora certainly at least suspected, but he never confided in anyone else. He didn't want to see their shame.

Still, Penny has been good to him, and he answers her. He owes her that, at the very least. "No. No, I did not. But I believe I may have come very close. I wish… I wish I knew."

"I see," replies Penny, even though she clearly doesn't.

"Perhaps the next time around." Jaune reaches for Ruby's hand cannon as he listens to the door hiss closed behind him.

"It has been an honor, sir," are the last words she says to him.

The audio clip comes around again.

"I'm sorry!"


End file.
